Melchior Berri

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Melchior Berri (born October 20, 1801 in Basel ; † May 12, 1854 there ) was a Swiss architect from Basel.

Melchior Berri, portrait of Johann Friedrich Dietler (1851)

biography

Melchior Berri was the son of Melchior Berri, pastor in Münchenstein , and Appollonia Fahrtisen. He grew up in Basel and Münchenstein. Between 1817 and 1823 he trained with the architect Friedrich Weinbrenner in Karlsruhe , among others . He then worked for the architect Jean-Nicolas Huyot in Paris and studied at the academy .

In 1826 he traveled to Italy with Josef Berckmüller , where he was interested in the buildings and wall paintings in Pompeii , but also in the Renaissance palaces in Rome . In this way he acquired manual skills as a stonemason , plasterer and bricklayer, trained in landscape and figure drawing and studied structural engineering subjects.

In 1828 Melchior Berri opened a construction business and a construction and drawing school in Basel. Berri owed its supraregional importance to the Basel Museum on Augustinergasse , the only remaining monumental building, but also to his designs for a Zurich and Bern town hall . Berri drew the plans for the redesign of the Lucerne quay and its quarters and hotel facilities in 1836. However, these were not carried out. In 1829 he was entrusted with the construction of a summer house by the client Ludwig August Sarasin. Sarasin died in 1831 before completing his summer residence. Through the marriage of one of the two Sarasin daughters, the summer house came into the possession of the Ehinger family and this summer house is now known as "Villa Ehringer".

Postage stamp Baslerdybli

Berri's early works also included the Blömleintheater, built in 1829/1931 on Theaterstrasse in Basel, the remains of which disappeared completely in 1969. This also includes the abdication chapel in today's Rosentalanlage, built in 1832. It once stood in the oldest part of the Gottesackers and is now the only structure on the burial ground. In the same year Berri built a two-story house on Malzgasse, which was expanded in 1842 by adding a rear extension.

Grave of Melchior Berri (1801-1854) in the St. Alban-Kirchhof in Basel next to his son Rudolf Samuel who was buried there in 1851.
Grave of Melchior Berri in the St. Alban-Kirchhof in Basel

In 1832 he married Margaretha Simone Burckhardt from Basel. Berri was also a member of the Basel Grand Council and the building commission, and in 1841 became president of the “Association of Swiss Engineers and Architects” (SIA). As an architect of the neoclassical style, he gained fame beyond Switzerland and was named Dr. hc honorary member of two British architectural associations.

The tensions between the demands placed on the building contractor and the artist, but perhaps also the narrowness of the small town, made Berri melancholy and he committed suicide in 1854. He was buried at St. Alban- Kirchhof next to his third son Rudolf Samuel (1846-1852).

Susanna (1796–1882), Berri's sister, was the mother of Ernst Stückelberg .

Legacy

Buildings

various

  • Tombs
  • First multicolored postage stamp, Basler Dybli , 1845
  • Mailboxes (Basler Dybli)
  • Fountain (including "Dreizackbrunnen", Basel, 1837)
  • Furniture designs

Canceled

  • Stadtcasino Basel , 1821–1824; canceled in 1949
  • Blömleintheater, Basel, 1829; Canceled in 1969
  • Bogenschützenhaus , Bern, 1830–1833; canceled
  • Railway gate in the Basel city wall, 1844; canceled in 1880

literature

  • Georg Hermann, Dorothee Huber: The building of the old museum in Basel (1844-1849) , Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Vol. 78, 1978, pp. 5-31
  • Dorothee Huber, Doris Huggel, Architekturmuseum Basel (eds.): Melchior Berri 1801–1854: Architect of Classicism. Schwabe, Basel 2001, ISBN 3-7965-1742-0 . (with a detailed catalog raisonné).

Web links

Commons : Melchior Berri  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrike Jehle Schulte-Strathaus: A classic of classicism. Accessed December 1, 2019 .
  2. ^ Werner Stutz: Railway stations in Switzerland. From the beginning to the First World War. Orell Füssli, Zurich / Schwäbisch Hall 1983, ISBN 3-280-01405-0
  3. ↑ Roman Ottiger: Luzerners Quai- and hotel buildings by Melchior Berri. Accessed December 1, 2019 .
  4. ^ JR Heyer: Villa Ehinger. Accessed December 1, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Doris Huggel: Haus zum Schöneck. Retrieved December 7, 2019 .
  6. ^ Zara Reckermann: Sarasinsche Bandfabrik (today youth hostel), pp. 12-17. Retrieved December 16, 2019 .
  7. ^ Dieter Pfister, Sabine Häberli, Astrid Kübli: Basler Möbelkunst from 1450 to 1950. Schwabe, Basel 2002, ISBN 3-7965-1893-1 .
personal data
SURNAME Berri, Melchior
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berri-Burckhardt, Melchior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss architect
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1854
Place of death Basel